On the early stages of agriculture and cattle breeding formation in the territory of Abkhazia and their significance in ethnogenetic research

Aim. To consider the problem of the formation of an agricultural and cattle-breeding economy in the territory of Abkhazia in the Neolithic era.

Methodology. Some theoretical judgments are given about the probable scenarios, mechanisms, as well as the chronology of these processes in relation to similar Neolithic processes that took place in the neighboring areas. An analysis of the role of these processes in the light of the ancient ethnogenetic history of Abkhazia and the Eastern Black Sea region is made.

Results. The main argument of this work is that in the territory of the Eastern Black Sea region there was a process of addition of the Neolithic economy almost synchronously with the early Middle Eastern centers of the Neolithic. The creators of the Neolithic cultures of the Eastern Black Sea region were numerous ancient communities, speakers of West Caucasian languages.

Research implications. For the first time, a preliminary synthesis of various sources was carried out for the reconstruction of ancient ethnogenetic processes that took place on the territory of the Caucasian Black Sea region, and in particular in Abkhazia of the time before written historical records. The data of paleogeography, archeology and historical ethnology were used to compare the material culture of the population with the data of linguistics, in particular cultural vocabulary, and to determine the natural environment in which the development of society took place. According to the author, it is the synthesis of the above sources that makes it possible to outline the main geographical (areal) boundaries and the chronology of the ancient stages of the ethnogenetic history of the population of the Eastern Black Sea region.

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